A security system for protecting a facility, such as a building, manufacturing site or storage depot, can consist of one or more layers of protection around assets which would otherwise be subject to acts of theft or vandalism. The elements of a security system typically will function to detect unauthorized action to the protected facility, personnel or property, delay such actions, and respond to such threats. Security elements which detect intruders include a variety of electronic sensors, as well as door and window switches. Security elements which delay intrusion include familiar hardware such as reinforced doors, walls and locks. Finally, security elements for response often involve the personnel such as guards or local authorities alerted to the intrusion.
Currently, the design and construction of security systems for protected facilities typically involves ad hoc selections of such security elements. In the typical secured environment today, such elements are added to a system in piecemeal fashion, oftentimes in response to an act of theft or vandalism which has already occurred. Furthermore, the placement of multiple security elements about a protected area is generally accomplished without regard to the resulting overall effectiveness of protection. The resulting security systems thus require excessive investment in either hardware or personnel in some areas, while leaving other areas relatively vulnerable to challenge by unauthorized outside or inside actions.
There is no adequate structured method today for optimizing the security of a protected facility on a system-wide basis. The state of the art of security systems analysis does not offer a rigorous method for evaluating the relative effectiveness of the security of different security sectors of a protected facility or different security layers of that facility. Absent such methods, security elements added to an existing security system often do not increase overall protection because there is vulnerability in another security element which was not detected by the traditional, ad hoc approach. Financial resources thus are squandered on ineffectual security elements.
Especially at the initial design and construction stages, if a system-wide method for analyzing and optimizing protection were employed, a security system with more cost-effective deployment of security elements would result.